We’re
finally at the second part of my Australia trip blog series! Incase you’re
wondering, I still haven’t gone through all of my photos, there are just so
many to edit, but so little time to open everything, the life after coming back
from my trip has been nothing but super duper hectic. Spare me more time I
promise to have everything ready soon!My 2-week Australia trip
itinerary -> CLICK HERE

Australia
is a very popular (if not one of the most well known) travel destination and it
is known for so many interesting things. So far I have been to four states: New
South Wales, Melbourne, Queensland and Tasmania (island), I absolutely have
different experience on each state, but all have one thing is common: they’re
AMAZING in their own way. It’s almost like Australia can cater to your interest
and your need: beach, nature, sea, art, food, you name it, and I can assure you
that one single visit to Australia is never enough, this country is just so
addicting.Before
I give you my guide to the each of the state, I want to start by sharing you
the general guide to Australia, with the hope that this can help you plan your
trip to Australian easier, as well as giving more insight. You know one of
those days when it just gets closer and closer to d-day and you just have these
butterflies in your tummy and going to the airport is just the highlight of
that particular day!Do note that the guide is written
based on my personal experience and point of view, and if you have anything to
add, you’re more than welcome to comment on the comment box below :)

CURRENCY & EXCHANGE
RATE

Australia
currency is AUD or Australian Dollar.By
March 20th 2016 (as this post is written) 1 AUD = IDR 9.992, but definitely
changing on a daily basis, check this web to update the exhange rate
value.

WEATHER

Winter: June to August

Spring: September to November

Summer: December to February

Autumn: March to May

COMMUNICATION

This
is always the first thing that I look for as soon as I checked out my luggage
as I just can not NOT live without the internet #firstworldproblems, haha just
kidding, I have to stay connected most likely for work, so that I can always
connect to my assistant who is taking care of the works at home, as well as
updating on social medias (still work at certain point), some of my
recommendations would be:

- OPTUS

If
you’re on budget, simply opt for Optus! They have this mobile data
service where you will get 500MB of data to spend everyday just by paying 2 AUD
x (times) the length of your stay.

Let’s
say if you’re staying for a week, then you only need to pay 2 AUD x 7 days = 14
AUD, it’s already pretty affordable.

Cons: 500MB can be a piece of
cake for some people, especially those who have a lot of social media platforms
to update, some days 500 MB can stay the whole day, but the other days it ran
out in the middle of the day and I was left with no internet the rest of the
day.

- TELSTRA

If you
have more budget to spend on (relatively) faster and more reliable connection,
then go for Telstra. It’s clearly more expensive than Optus (spent around 50
AUD), but the spending align with the fast internet connection that I had.
Short to say: you got what you paid for.

I
honestly can’t say that Australia generally has fast internet, it’s not that it
is slow, but it’s just not fast (almost Indonesia like if Jakartans can
relate), but it’s nothing comparing to my internet experience in Korea or
Japan.

The
accomodation in Australia is not the cheapest, but somehow still (relatively)
affordable. I have experienced staying in the boutique and 5-star hotels in
Australia and from what I saw, the typical standard/deluxe room of the 5-star
hotels in Australia is not spacious (even Jakarta has more spacious deluxe
rooms), the boutique one is definitely smaller.

TRANSPORTATION

Average cost for:

Local city bus: 1,5 AUD/ride

Local city train: 2,5 AUD/ride

Melbourne tram is mostly
free

G-link day pass card: 10 AUD for unlimited ride within 24 hours

Car rental: 55-70 AUD/day

Airfare to different
states: 80
AUD+ (Virgin Australia) depending on the season.

To be
completely frank, if you can drive and travel in group of 4/5, the cheapest
alternative would be renting a car as you can practically go anywhere you want
in and out of the city, or simply just Uber. On my first visit to Sydney, I
rent a car to the Blue Mountains and stayed overnight there, the advantage of
renting a car is that you can definitely tour the town and explore what it has
in store, something that you can’t really do (or not very effective to do) by
bus or train.

On my
last trip to Australia, I tour the city using bus almost all the time, but not
until the moment where I feel it’s too hot to handle (I travel in February and
it was summertime) that I had to order Uber to save me from the heat.

FOOD AND EATING OUT

Eating
out in Australia is not cheap, for sure. If you love cafe hopping like me and
has done that in Singapore before, the cost that I spent to eat out in
Australia was pretty much around the cost that I spent in Singapore. Singapore
has got crazy expensive lately.

Average
restaurant meal (with no other drink but tap water) will cost you around 25-30
AUD, degustation menu on high end restaurants might run you 85-140 AUD, up to
300 AUD when you opt for wine pairing. If you stay in an apartment during your
time and want to save up, I would suggest cooking your own meal. My cousin who
has lived in Australia for 7 years told me that the typical weekly grocery
shopping cost is around 70-90 AUD, and that already includes carbs (rice,
pasta), vegetables, meats, and some other basic ingredients.

MONEY SAVING TIPS

Uber

Unless
you have tons of money to splurge, DO NOT TAKE TAXI IN AUSTRALIA! I got ripped
off by the Sydney taxi ride to the airport and spent 60 AUD on a 20 minute
ride. Uber is definitely the cheaper alternative to go around the city if you
don’t fancy city bus or trains, and if you travel in group, you can share the
fare!

Consider taking train or
bus

But if
you want to save more money, consider taking city train and bus to tour the
city. Google Maps really give clear intruction on which bus and route to take,
the downside is that sometimes you need to walk further to your destination
from the station, but hey walking is healthy ;)

Drink tap water

Considering
drinking in Australia is not cheap, I notice you can save more money while
eating out by having just tap water. Tap water in Australia is clean and very
drinkable. Bottled mineral water in Australia is very expensive (especially for
Indonesians like me), normally we can just spend 30 cent (IDR 3000) on a
bottle, but here you have to spend 2,5 AUD on a single botttle #heartbreaks

Cook your own meal

Another
money saving tips if you are on budget: cook your own meal and shop for
groceries.

SPOTS TO CHECK OUT

The Blue Mountains

I am a
city person and always will, but sometimes it’s just nice to go somewhere
quieter with a more laid-back atmosphere and breathe a different kind of air.
When you’re planning a trip to Sydney New South Wales, spare one or two days to
the Blue Mountains where you can enjoy beautiful nature view. I personally
would suggest staying at the Lilianfels, it’s a nice luxurious resort with
pretty room, you would literally feel like you’re on a classy countryside.

Bondi Beach

I love Bondi Beach, and I think it’s a pretty cool and beautiful beach in Sydney where you not only can enjoy your time tanning and chilling, but also enjoy the beautiful view of the sea and Bondi Iceberg from their cliff points, even more, the beach area is surrounded by awesome cafes and restaurants.

Goldcoast

If
you’re the mix of city and beach person, then Goldcoast is the destination you
shouldn’t miss! The ultimate thing to do to enjoy the beautiful beach and
skyline view is to have it seen from the Sky Point. An open air observation
deck, also the highest point in the entire Goldcoast.

The Great Ocean Road

The
Great Ocean Road will always have a special place in my heart as it was the
very first time I had my helicopter experience. The view from up there wasn’t
anything shabby! I literally floated above the 12 Apostles and enjoy the beauty
of the blue water mixed with a little emerald green! Talk about life-changing
view.

Hobart

Hobart
is the capital of Tasmania, and it’s just the perfect place to find peace as
the ambiance is very laid back with less population comparing to Sydney or Melbourne.
I will talk more about Hobart on my upcoming post.

Melbourne

Melbourne,
I don’t even know how to begin explaining about Melbourne as it’s literally the
city of my dream, especially if you love food & coffee. More on what not to love about Melbourne on my upcoming post.

Sydney and The Sydney Opera
House

Taronga Zoo

I am
an animal lover, while I believe each state has their very own zoo, but I only
went to Taronga Zoo in Sydney. It was a spacious zoo complex and the visit was
special for me because it was my first time seeing kangaroo and koalla. They’re
so cute!

Uluru

Still
on my bucketlist!

Yarra Valley

Located
in the state of Victoria, Yarra Valley is another recommended destination if
you have special interest towards farms, wineries and dairies! Book a day trip
here and indulge on the beautiful valley view while having delicious ice creams
at Yarra Valley Chocolaterie, or the fresh stone fruits from Rayner’s

Last but definitely not least, COFFEE SHOP HOPPING!

Australia
is the coffee capital of the world, at least for me. Enough said!

People
come and go, so does PIK's food avenue, I literally lost count at how many new
restaurants opening in PIK, something that I actually don't used to as I am
always the more up-to-date guy, but there are just too many now I can't keep up, well
but particularly this one: ON MY RADAR. Meet and Eat is one of the newcomers at
Pantai Indah Kapuk.

Went
to have lunch at AW Kitchen’s new outlet at Plaza Indonesia, this popular pasta
house is now expanding their business after their first outlet in Plaza Senayan
became a hit in town. The ambiance of this particular outlet in Plaza Indonesia
has this more youthful feel to it, and in a sense, a little more casual than
the more family-ish and business-ish Plaza Senayan outlet. Their newest outlet is located precisely beside Kitchenette on the second level.

When
it comes to F&B scene, particularly in Jakarta, there are some (or a lot
of) things that make me happy, some of them are pretty common standards: good food, good looking restaurant, good service, good value for
money, but for me, another thing is knowing that UNION group is opening a new
restaurant, and I always look forward to great things they are doing! Call me
their number one supporter because I genuinely probably am!

I just
got back from what I would describe as “ONE OF THE BEST TRIPS EVER!” and if you follow me on Instagram or Snapchat: yep it’s AUSTRALIA!I have
so many things that I want to write and share to you but give me more time as
looking at the amount of pictures that I took already scared me enough (56
Gigabytes), and I think I might need 5-6 days to sort out the pictures and edit
them! Wish me luck!

I
would not say this because I am a food blogger, but as someone who loves food
and taking pictures of them, it's pretty common for me, especially my laptop to
face this problem: HARD DISK MEMORY ISSUE.So my
laptop has an internal memory of 500GB (upgraded from the lame default 200GB),
and I believe you know that 500GB is not a fix 500GB, and to make matters
*ahem* worse, the original 400 something GB is definitely not dedicated for
your pictures and music, pretty much like perfume, when they say it's 100ml,
it's NOT precisely 100ml, or your own mobile phone!

I
remember vividly about mentioning that Elang Laut is going to be one of the
hippest dining spots in town, and by time, it’s slowly proving the existence
from the number of tenants opening in the area, one of the newest is this steak
restaurant called “Meaters” located precisely beside Shiraku Soba.

I have
these pictures from La Laguna (favorite beach club in Bali) that I haven’t got
the chance to upload, but nice enough for me, so I wanna do it now. Consider
this something to refresh the blog and your eyes.

I am
preparing so many blog posts and have been writing non-stop for the last 5
days, the thing is, since I came back from Australia, I have had non-stop
events and I haven’t really got the chance to edit my pictures, but I promise
to upload good stuff in 1-2 days.

Never
did I expect that “pempek” (savory fish cake) is going to be a happening
F&B trend in town at the moment. I mean, normally what’s going to be
trending is something cute and pretty looking, mostly desserts, or something
that’s out of the box. Recently, I have seen various modified versions of
pempek like charcoal pempek, pempek carbonara, and all that.